Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of restraint harness arrangements for children in general and in particular to a restraint harness assembly specifically designed for use in conventional school bus seats.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,954,280; 3,321,247; 3,834,758; and, 4,205,670, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse passenger restraint assemblies designed for different vehicles such as cars and/or school buses.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical restraint arrangement that is specifically designed for attachment to the tubular steel framework that supports the seats in conventional school buses.
While most modern school buses are provided with built-in seat buckle arrangements, there is a large number of older school buses that do not have any type of restraint system provided therein, and this represents a dangerous situation for tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of school children who travel to and from school each day in these older buses.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need among school systems using the older style school buses for a new and improved passenger restraint assembly that attaches directly to the tubular support framework that is standard equipment in virtually all of the older style school buses; and, the provision of such an arrangement is the stated objective of the present invention.
Briefly stated, the passenger restraint assembly for school buses that forms the basis of the present invention comprises in general a plurality of anchor units, a seat engaging unit and a child engaging unit that cooperate with one another to provide a three point restraint harness that is operatively connected to the conventional seat framework system employed on older school bus seats.
As will be explained in greater detail further on in the specification, the basic passenger restraint assembly comprises three strap members having different lengths wherein each of the strap members is operatively connected to one of the anchor units to secure one end of each strap member to different portions of the school bus support framework.
In both versions of the invention, the shortest strap member comprises one half of the seat or lap belt whereas the roles of the longest and intermediate length strap members switch from a seat back connecting role to a lap and chest strap role depending upon whether or not the restraint assembly is manually adjustable or relies upon a strap retraction member to insure that the chest strap snugly engages the chest of a child.